Need some inspiration or a positive attitude?

This fabulous photo was a fabulous time with two of my many good girlfriends who I miss. Deborah, Tanya and I cliff jumping on the Big Island, Hawaii.(I forgot the spots name...anyone?)

This post isn't about cliff jumping though just inspiring adventure and that was a great adventure! I want to point out a website to those of you feeling uninspired lately(me) and downtrodden by all the news of the global economic crisis, everything sucks blah blah blah...It is the TED website, Ideas Worth Spreading.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives

The first one I watched was from Elizabeth Gilbert, The author of that wonderful little book, "Eat, Pray, Love" and her thoughts on cultivating genius.

There are talks from Jane Goodall, Bono, Bill Gates,Sylvia Earle on the state of the oceans, so many interesting people from a range of themes; design, innovation, art, environment...

I look forward to watching more at TED and hope you will too.

Back to being a puppy...

Good morning! I woke up at 6:30 AM to Tequila(reminder:who is our 10 month old German shepherd) eating everyone's shoes. I groggily took them all away and went back to bed. Woke up a few hours later to this lovely mess, charcoal bag ripped wide open, shredded mother-in-law's pillows, broom straw strewn about the patio and Tequila looking at me like what? I was bored you shouldn't have taken my shoes away...ahhhhhhhhhh puppies! I actually asked my husband whether he thought it was going to be easier to have our baby or to have a puppy? I thought a baby will be easier... but he disagreed ...

Then the anger from the destruction cleared when I realized she's not bleeding anymore!!!!!She's not in heat anymore finally!!!! Yeah!!!!!No more isolation techniques, no more mangy, crazy, male dogs lurking around, no more bored Tequila because we can take her for walks free off leash again, and let her run and play with the other "boys" in the neighborhood. After all, I need to remember she really is still just a puppy...

To let off some steam for the both of us we took a long walk around the neighborhood and it has definitely become our daily ritual. There has been tons of rain lately and the country side is bursting with greens and flowers. Although I don't find Didim a perfect city it does have a lot of natural beauty.


















These small purple flowers make me happy while we are walking on the beach. They pop out of the sand with these wispy, curly iris like leaves. I imagine they stay so small to protect themselves from the intense seaside wind we can get. The vibrant pops of purple nicely surprise the eye against the neutrals of the sand, and muted greens of surrounding low lying shrubs.


















The abundant yellow flowers are mustard greens(Hardal in Turkish). They seem to have a cooperative relationship with the olive groves. It is beautiful the subtle muted tones of the olive leaves rising above the lively yellow flower speckles all against the backdrop of the Aegean Sea.

As you drive down the road to our house the fields are blanketed with a beautiful emerald green and then the patchworks of olive groves dappled with the yellow. There are several edible greens, including mustard that people dig up and saute with onion and tomato paste. My husband's favorite is to fry eggs sunny side up into the vitamin packed greens(see earlier harvesting post)













Tequila and I's daily walking adventures go something like this, taking in the little things, the natural beauty of Didim with my friend, my puppy.

balık

Fish fry Turkish style...yummy! Sardalya which I think translates to Sardines were fresh and delicious. We usually fry up Hamsi, another kind of small anchovy but this time the balıkci was out. The Sardalya were a little bigger but just as fresh and delicious. You just coat them in flour and salt and fry them out side to save your house from the smell. Pop them open, easily debone, squeeze with fresh lemon(from the tree in the yard) and enjoy. We had a huge salad to accompany it. Normally in many houses in Turkey the salad is communal, everyone just dips their fork or bread when they want, which I like. Also my mother-in-law made a fabulous lentil soup, mercimek in Turkish. She took chicken stock, lentils, tomato paste(salça in Turkish and an ingredient heavily used ingredient)then purees it all together. Of course there was plenty of fresh bread. A delicious Turkish dinner that reminded me of Etzel family fish frys when the boys would bring home tons of sunnys from the lake...yummmy!

The Honeymoon period is over...

This photo was taken last March when my class from Mimar Sinan went to a village named Zeytinburnu next to Muldanya, about an hour ferry ride from Istanbul.

When I write "the honey moon period is over" I don't mean with my new husband who I love more everyday, I mean with my host country of Turkey.

Good old Wikipedia describe the Honeymoon period as this:

The honeymoon period is the phase early in a long-term relationship characterized by greater than typical joy and lesser than typical friction. This is also true early on in marriage - spouses seem to be more forgiving and loving than they would be later on in the relationship.

I have been coming to Turkey on and off for two years this month and initially it was rose-colored glasses the whole time, I was more forgiving about the annoyances I found and still very in love with this new exotic land I had fallen for. I would turn a blind eye, or turn on my third eye actually so I wouldn't loose a limb to the crazy-ass, non-seat belt wearing free-for-all rule less maniacs of drivers who throw their trash out the windows without a second thought, to the lack of amenities such as constant natural gas to the house which leads to warmth in every room and hot water from every faucet;the kitchen, the bathroom, the bathroom faucet, the shower etc.(my husband reminds me that I come from a "rich country" often when I am frustrated and Turkey is still developing), to up to 20 hours it takes me by plane to go see my family, to the serious problem of feral dogs and cats that roam the streets begging for food and cycle of abuse and fear it leads to between humans and animals, to the garbage that piles up out side dumpsters, if there are even dumpsters at all, so the cats and dogs scrounge for food from it and tear open the bags scattering the trash all over the place, the potholes that I can't figure out why the city won't fix and the irritation I feel every time we hit one hard, to it taking three days for my clothes to dry because there aren't any clothes dryers, that it isn't easy to learn Turkish and I better keep trying hard because...

the reality has hit me hard that I am going to be living here for while and that I need to make a life of my own here. Stop treating it as if I am on vacation and that I am going back to my "real", "safe" life in America anytime soon(although I swear to you I will when the time is right). Make my life my own here with my husband but not just wait around for my husband and his life. We just found out some blessed news that we are expecting a little one and with that news I think your perspective on life changes. I have never been one to over think the future(good or bad as that may be) but with one on the way I wonder what kind of life we will give it? Where to go to school...I guess it needs to get here first...

inşallah sağlıklı= If it is god's will, healthy!!!!!

That is my little rant for the week and releasing it to get over it. Thanks to my mother, sisters and friends for guidance emails. Get past the lust of the honeymoon period and try to get into living here. There is still a new language to conquer and lots to explore in "The ohhh sweet Turkey." Also friends and family don't forget our door is always open for visitors!

Deep breathes(right mom?)

Newspaper artist

I found this piece hanging in the Nordstrom's shoe department at the "Mall of America"(come on Minnesotan sing the jingle song) in Minnesota, USA. At first it is a nice image of course appropriate for the shoe department but then I looked closer and was fascinated by the woven newspaper technique. I come from a Fiber Arts background and love the use of recycled materials, the texture it gives the piece and the large scale.


















Here is a close up. I researched and found from daily art muse.com(lots of good stuff!) woven newspaper paintings by Danish artist Gugger Petter. Living in California since 1986, Petter has used newspapers as a medium for her paintings for the last 18 years, rolling the paper into tubes and weaving the tubes with hemp. Here is Gugger's personal website.

My fascination with newspaper consists not only of its being “the diary of our lives”, it also presents me with a black/white/and limited color palette, which has always been my choice. My work is most often based on an over sized image, an observation of daily life, which can be seen as an abstraction as well as a representational image, where surface, subject matter, color and content all convey tension between opposites.

This inspires me to get creative again by using recycled materials and what is around me...surprise but there is no Dick Blick art stores in Didim...or any equivalent. I do miss really nice paper(any one know how to make paper?), I also have a book idea? On this blog I document daily life and love bring small activities into focus. I just need to get our new house and make myself a studio, a place where I can have all my art junk out and about to work on at any time of the day and not worry about cleaning up. Yes! Messy art fun!

P.S. I am happy for my friend Len for deciding to make art for a living, hard road but I wish her the best!

nar ve portakal suyu

We went to Aydin, the capital of Didim's "state" the other day for my Turkish marriage visa, about an hour away. It was less headache than I had anticipated since of course my Turkish speaking husband was with me. We had to go to three different government buildings to get everything completed. I wondered why they couldn't consolidate the steps/buildings, silly me? One building was only for making payments. If we didn't have a car it would have taken a day to complete like it has previous times when I have gone to get visas by myself. Turkish officials love photos, you always need several passport size photos with you and their is also a love of stamps, lots of very official stamping going on.

After a few steps we walked out of one government building and on the corner was a juice man, squeezing fresh pomegranate(nar) and orange(portakal) juice(suyu). Delicious!!!!! He freshly squeezes you the mixture of your choice for 1.5 TL about one dollar and serves it up in little glasses. In Turkey there isn't much of a to-go cup culture which can be great as far as not producing waste. Also Americans really do super size everything...A funny side story is my husband and I went to a Starbucks here in Turkey. I got us two medium coffees because he tries to like my American coffee. I brought it to him and he's all, "whoo baby, that's enough coffee for like 4 Turkish people." In Turkey the Turkish coffee is unfiltered espresso, it is small and since it is full of grounds by the end you flip over the cup onto the saucer and then your friend reads you your fortune by reading the grounds. I don't care for the grounds in style but it tastes good and it is fun to get your fortune read. Also there is a deep love for Nescafe, instant coffee that I am attempting to get used to? But the juice...fresh and delicious!

Our bitch is in heat!

Literally, Our nine month old German Shepperd is having her first and last period! It is a nightmare if you ask me. She like any girl is leaking spots of blood everywhere. There are so many free street dogs around that they lurk around her ready to pounce. We confine her at night but the free male dogs sit outside in the yard and bark in longing for our puppies sweet loving. I guess it is best to not spay her while she is in heat because all the blood vessels are enlarged and she could excessively bleed from the surgery but this is it. Dogs have periods only about two or three times a year but they last for 21 days at a time. It amazes me how many Turkish people are extremely afraid of dogs! I guess it is because they have such a wild street dog population.